Background:

The corporate super-giant General Electric™ (GE™) holds numerous brands under its financial services umbrella. For a biannual trade show event, Travis was called on to magic up a creative vision to stimulate interest around its secured lending division ‘i-group™’ with a primary focus toward expanding its network of accredited brokers.
To offer you a sense of scale and the sheer volume of business required to keep i-group’s underwriting team busy; at its peak i-group was accountable for lending in excess of £500,000,000.00 (five hundred million pounds sterling) per calendar month across its first and second charge loans business within the sub-prime market.

The Challenge:

Planning, planning, planning; from concept to execution, ensuring every last detail in build-up to the show is critical. The event doors wait for no man and an ill prepared stand can reflect very badly on the exhibiting company indeed, so nothing less than perfect execution in the bringing together of multiple assets will do.

Measurements, system integration, logistics, construction, skilled trades and a whole host of other contributing factors all require exemplary orchestration and multiple checks at every stage; with a vast experience in the organisation and deployment of international trade shows Travis understands the number one rule in events is to never assume a single detail.

The Solution:

The detailing of key objectives and formulation of creative smart solutions to address these needs, mark the first step across a variety of project disciplines endorsed. Keeping ideas simple improves clarity of delivery and overall campaign effectiveness; from there on-in it’s a pure case of bringing theses concepts and smart objectives to reality.

How do we generate interest? This is where the Lamborghini Murcielago prize-draw was born; like-it-or-not, aspiring brokers hold a real passion for reward within this industry and status symbols are a real draw; so for a behind-the-scenes (B2B) trade show, a blind eye cast to political correctness within the sub-prime market was cast for this directive. Various spinoffs were forged across material captured within a bespoke photo shoot at the prestigious Moor Park golf club; for example, rendering i-group into the engine rocker box covers and applying a strap-line ‘The Power Behind Your Team’ in bespoke Photoshop rendering; a particular skill Travis also holds. Trade publicity and generalised marketing was timed inline with the Top Gear™ road test which was exclusively televised one week prior to the show, resulting as an extra reminder to i-group’s presence at the Mortgage Business exhibition in London. Needless to say, Travis fought particularly hard to have such a rare vehicle incorporated live at the event for GE™, tastefully branded and in exactly the right colour too. Every last detail helped achieve a heightened state of brand awareness in the marketplace for i-group™.

PR, editorial, printed media and digital advertising objectives achieved through the Lamborghini prize draw and other clever targeted ‘drip’-’drip’ marketing initiatives.

Competition entry forms gathered only at the show to incentivise attendance, to achieve the collation of invaluable pre-qualified contact information and subsequent leads of quality.

Design of the exhibition stand to maximise footfall, exposure and an overall sense of aspiration.
Commissioning of all aspects from securing the first UK based Murcielago to promotional merchandise.
Lighting design, audio-visual display and digital data capture tied to response marketing.
Sponsorship of the Mortgage Business Expo after party.
…and much, much more!

The Benefits:

Huge exposure for the company.
Sales & Marketing Director Jonathan Sadler to announce prize draw winner via trade press.
In excess of 500 quality new business leads captured per day.
In excess of 1900 new pre-qualified contacts made per day.
Debrief resulting in best practice, effective use of leads and data captured.
Assets stored, archived, reworked and optimised future shows.
Enjoying a mass increase in footfall, Travis achieved a £7,000.00 discount on floor space from event organisers as a direct result in the success of this campaign.
Travis also achieved a £10,000.00 discount from manufacturers of the exhibition stand materials across the London and Manchester trade shows for i-group™.

How do we top this? For the following show, Travis set about visiting the London Boat show to secure free delivery of a high-end yacht, to be sailed from the Côte d’Azur to London docklands, crane lifted and escorted by Metropolitan Police through the streets of London to the Earls Court exhibition centre.
There’s no greater presence than holding a VIP reception on top of a 32ft Sunseeker™, while overlooking the entire UK Mortgage Industry. In negotiation, Travis secured the use of this vessel purely upon the fact that Sunseeker™ would enjoy the company of more high-net-worth individuals per square foot, than any related London marine trade show. The prize; a two-week all expenses paid yacht charter with chef, fuel and mooring.
Account:

With multiple SMT nominations for ‘Employee-of-the-year’ Travis has worked numerous briefs across the i-group and First National brands for the international giant GE® within their consumer finance division GE Money™. This operation consisted of a workforce in excess of 1000 staff.

Commissioned by:

Jonathan Sadler
Sales & Marketing Director

VISIT THE GE™ WEBSITE